1. Field of the Invention
Exemplary aspects of the present invention generally relate to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus including an image forming unit that includes a plurality of image bearing members, a sheet feeder, an exposure unit, an intermediate transfer belt, and a toner supply unit.
2. Description of the Background Art
There are image forming apparatuses that include an image forming unit including a plurality of image bearing members, a sheet feeder, an exposure unit, an intermediate transfer belt, and a toner supply unit.
In such image forming apparatuses in general, in order to facilitate maintenance and replacement of consumables, each component is configured to be detachably mountable relative to an image forming apparatus main structure, examples of which are disclosed in JP-11-030942-A and JP-2006-171534-A.
In JP-11-030942-A, a front frame and an intermediate frame that supports a process cartridge are coaxially disposed in an opening of a hub portion of an immovable main body frame, so that a supporting point of rotation of the front frame and the intermediate frame is the same. Accordingly, the front frame can be opened and/or closed smoothly without interference from components.
With this configuration, when the front cover is opened and the intermediate frame is turned, the process cartridge can be attached/detached with ease. Further, when the front frame and the intermediate frame are linked so as to operate together, other components, such as a color developer, a monochrome developer, and so forth, can be replaced without removing the process cartridge, thus facilitating maintenance and replacement of consumables.
In JP-2006-171534-A, an image forming apparatus includes a sheet feeder, an exposure unit, an image forming unit, an intermediate transfer unit, a fixing unit, and a sheet tray are provided, in that order, from substantially the bottom of the image forming apparatus. In this particular image forming apparatus, a sheet transport path is substantially vertical. When a rotary frame that exposes the sheet transport path is opened, the intermediate transfer unit becomes detachable from the image forming apparatus in the opening direction of the rotary frame at an angle of 15 degrees both upward and downward relative to the horizontal direction of the image forming apparatus.
However, since the structure disclosed in JP-11-030942-A includes the intermediate frame, the cost of the image forming apparatus increases. Further, in the image forming apparatus disclosed in JP-2006-171534-A, a single path is used to guide a plurality of components to be detached from the image forming apparatus, thus requiring that the components need to be attached or detached in a certain order.
In other words, when the components disposed at substantially the back of the image forming apparatus in the removing direction need to be replaced, the components disposed at substantially the front of the image forming apparatus need to be removed temporarily in order to provide access to the components at the back of the image forming apparatus, thereby complicating replacement.